Meet Miquela. Miquela Sousa is a Brazilian-American 19-year-old Instagram model from Downey, California. Miquela's first Instagram post was made in April 2016 and by 2018, her account had amassed more than a million followers. As of March 2021, it has over 3 million followers. Quite impressive for a 19-year old, but still not as unusual nowadays. So what is so special about this girl?
Well, Miqeula has been 19 years old since 2016 when her Instagram account was first made. This beautiful, young influencer is not a real person but a computer-generated image (CGI) developed by AI company Bud. Her appearance might be human-like, but in reality, she is nothing but codes, binary digits programmed by the IT experts to run brand promotions and in turn earn profits. It must feel really weird if being told, the person behind those posts and stories that you regularly follow and like, the clothes you buy after seeing them wearing it – that person just doesn’t exist. In other words, it’s just fake reality that could be used to manipulate the way you feel about yourself and influence your buying behaviour.
Miquela wore designer clothing and posed in the coolest locations, and oftentimes used her platform to make a statement about movements like #BlackLivesMatter. Miquela's character is even positioned as a social justice activist.
Obviously, Miquela is not the only CGI influencer out there, there are others like her - Bermuda, Blawko and Shudu are some of the most eminent ones. The continued growth of these profiles has led to increasingly blurred lines between reality and the portrayal of it online. While some don't see the harm in such type of marketing and wonder how they are different from many of the heavily-edited accounts online featuring real people, there are many ethical implications of CGI influencers promoting brands. If you are interested to know more about what they are, read about it here.
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